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US - An Environmental Quality Engineer at South Dakota State University says a combination of strategies can be used to successfully address the odour emitted from swine operations, writes Bruce Cochrane.

"Odour Mitigation Strategies" will be among the topics discussed as part of the 2017 Manitoba Swine Seminar Wednesday and Thursday in Winnipeg.

Dr Erin Cortus, an Environmental Quality Engineer at South Dakota State University, says in and around the area in which she works odour has become a predominant issue when it comes to citing new facilities.

Dr Erin Cortus-South Dakota State University:

When it comes to reducing odour one of the first places to look is at the manure.

Are there ways to alter what's in the manure, whether that's through maybe changing the diet so that we reduce excess nutrients going into the manure or trying to cover that manure as much as we can.

Once there is odour or gasses released can we block it, can we filter it before it leaves?

There is some strategies to do that.

One of the strategies that we employ with South Dakota State University on some of our farms is biofilters.

The air that's exhausted from mechanically ventilated barns is passed through a bed of wood chips that supports a microbial biomass.

That microbial biomass consumes some of the odours and gasses in the air that's exhausted from the barns so it's a form of filtration but them also this biological activity reduces odour and gasses.

That's one strategy that we've had success with.

Then we also can look at how can we enhance the dispersion or the mixing of the air that leaves the farm so that the concentration is decreased down wind of the facility.

Anything we can do to enhance that mixing of the air, pushing that air up higher into the atmosphere where it's faster and more turbulent or some sort of filtration down wind through shelterbelts are a common example of how we can approach that.

Dr Cortus says odour has always been an issue but, with some large facilities in particular and with new facilities where there hasn't been as much concentrated livestock, odour has become a hot issue.